The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, May 18, 1929, Page 2

SPSL SE TD * OE CE MS SS PERE Eo SUN ee ENC ae se et eRe EES Cer ST veseeteperriieng | AL Itt LiCiLiiiiiicriiiiitiliiititii. Sit vtr itis it i i ef bee PAGE ‘I Wu Mooney, LABOR AGITATOR’S {S{8CONVICTION AS DYNAMITER SHAKEN Trial Judge and Surviving Jurors Unite in Plea for Cali- fornia Pardon AFFECTS BILLINGS ALSO Former Witness on Whose Tes- timony Men Were Impris- oned Now Say They Lied By PHILIP J. SINNOTT San Francisco, May 18—(NEA)— Thirteen years ago he was strong, youthful and energetic. Today he is ‘weak, white-haired, emaciated by years of ill health. A dozen years of prison life have broken him physical- ly, although his fighting spirit is still @s alive and vibrant as ever. Tom Mooney, about whom those two contrasting pictures are painted, is. still in prison. Some time this spring, however, he may get out. For Governor C. C. Young has promised to make a thorough study of the 60 pounds of affidavits, briefs and other documents that make up the records on his case, and to take some defi- nite action on his long-standing plea for a pardon. It was in 1917 that Mooney entered San Quentin penitentiary after spending approximately a year in jail. He had been convicted of first de- gree murder. A jury found him guilty of hurling a bomb that exploded “along the line of march in a great preparedness parade here in July, 1916, killing 10 people and injuring 35 more." Mooney was sentenced to death. In 1918 his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Judge, Jurors Join Plea Since that time the judge who tried and sentenced him has become convinced that Mooney is innocent. Nine of the ten surviving members of the jury that found him guilty have reached the same view. The San Francisco police captain who handled the investigation of the bombing also believes him innocent. Most of the evidence against Mooney has been proved false. So now, after 12 years of imprison- ment, Mooney's case comes up for a rehearing. The most famous convict in the country—the man whose case has stirred comment and agitation from one end of the country to the other—is at last about to find out whether the world at large is ready, ‘now, to believe his’constant protests , <that he is innocent. Mooney was a labor leader—a radi- cal one. As such, he had plenty of enemies. In the early summer of 1916 he was in San Francisco, trying to pull off a big street car strike. The strike, for one reason of another, hung fire. A few weeks after that came the @ term for illegal transportation of explosives, was arrested; and a day or so later the police swooped down on Mooney. History of Case It is necessary, now, for the reader keep carefully in mind the next in the conviction of the two lings was tried first. District Charles M. Fickert and his assistant, James F. Brennan, asa witness one Estelle ‘who swore Billings had called er place of employment, carrying tease, just before the explosion. identification of him was positive. Fickert and Brennan contended that Billings’ suitcase held a bomb, and he speedily convicted, Mooney went to trial. Lib- in various parts of the country, inced that he had been arrested because of his labor agitation because of evidence against him, & defense fund and sent the Weather Report perature at 7 a. m. s rift feliigt o 4 oe | ° 38 3 38 i i i S283eseaasg | pine e = a aren RSRSSSBSSe szessssss eoogZocococ RoC 0000; «(Ae aneveeageit @ A i iF | E it i z 1 i i ; | i k i THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE Spared Death, May Soon Be Freed | WHAT PRISON LIFE HAS DONE TO MOONEY The above pictures show what 13 yeasr of. prison life have done for Tom Mooney, who. it is expected, may soon be freed as an innocent man. At the left is the alleged San Francisco dynamiter at the timé of his arrest in 1916 and at the right is Mooney as he appears today. Below (left), Charles A. Whitmore, private secretary to Governor Young of California, is shown with part of the mass of evidence which the executive 1s studying before taking action on the petitions for pardon. In the center is Governor Young. late Bourke Cochran, York attorney, to defend him. First the state produced two wit- nesses—Mrs, Mellie Edeau_and her daughter, Sadi, both of Oakland. who said they had seen Mooney at Steuart and Market streets, where the explosion took place, shortly be- fore the tragedy. Then came the prosecution's trump card—Frank C. Oxman, “cattleman.” He swore that he had seen Mooney, Mrs. Mooney and Billings with a suitcase, at Steuart and Market streets a few minutes before the dis- | aster. They were driven away in a taxicab, he said. Sentenced to Hang Mooney was convicted. Judge Franklin Griffin denied his motion for a new trial and sentenced him to hang. An appeal was promptly taken to the state supreme court. Months passed. Then Judge Grif- fin startled California by writing the attorney general, U. S. Webb, to peti- tion the state supreme court for a new trial. Oxman, the judge declared, had written friends in Illinois, a few months before Mooney’s trial, asking one to come to San Francisco to act as an expert witness, and had for- warded transportation money. Had he known this before, Judge Griffin said, he himself would have granted a new trial. Now, however, the case was out of his jurisdiction. Webb asked for a new trial. The supreme court denied t. President Wilson Intervenes Meanwhile, the United States had entered the World War. Organized labor, which was being appealed to on every hand to stay put and help the great industrial machine win the war, had taken the conviction of Mooney and Billings much to heart. Indeed, labor got so disgruntled about it that President Wilson, in May of 1917, wrote Governor Stephens of California asking him to postpone execution. At the same time he sent to California a commission, headed by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, to investigate. After months of study, this commission reported that Mooney should have a new trial. John B. Densmore, then a solicitor for the Labor Department, did some extensive research work. In the fall of 1918 he reported that Billings’ con- viction was due to witnesses who had since been discredited, that Oxman famous New was chiefly respongible for Mooney's conviction and that Oxman's credi- | bility had been destroyed by his at- tempt to get other witnesses to per- jure themselves. A few days later Governor Stephens commuted Mooney’s sentence to life imprisonment. Shortly thereafter, however, the U. S. supreme court re- fused to review the case. Mooney and Billings, apparently, were doomed to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Years passed by. Governor Steph- ens was succeeded by Governor F. W. Richardson. He refused to act on Mooney’s case. Richardson was suc- ceeded by Governor Young—who has | finally agreed to review the entire mass of evidence. “Perjury.” Says Trial Judge Judge Griffin, who originally sen- tenced Mooney to hang, is the most active worker of all for ‘the man’s pardon. “There were oiily four’ witnesses against him, and every one has been Proved a perjurer,” he says, Oxman was tricd on perjury charges growing out of his letter to his Illinois friend, but was acquitted. McDonald, a witness who testified against both Mooney and_ Billings, made an affidavit in New York that while he had scen men with a suit- case near the scene of the crime, the Police had forced him to swear that the men were Mooney and Billings. Former Policeman Draper Hand testified that much of the police case against Mooney had been “framed.” Then, most sensational of all, Estelle Smith, the woman whose tes- timony convicted Billings, recently declared that she had never been Positive that the man she saw was Billings. District Attorney Fickert and a detective employed by tne street railway company, she said, had forced, by threats of prison, to make her swear to his identity. A drug ad- dict, she had taken morphine tablets throughout the trial, she added. Prosecutor Is Defeated Fickert, incidentally, was defeated for reelection in 1919, in a campaign in which the Mooney case was the issue. The man who defeated him, Mathew Brady, is still district attor- ney—and is one of those seeking a Pardon for the two men. A pardon for Mooney, it is believed, would necessarily carry with it a par- don for Billings. Both men have in- sisted that they will never accept a Parole. To do so, they say, would be & tacit admission of guilt. So Mooney and Billings are wait- ing for a rehearing—after 13 years. Mooney is in bad shape physically. His hair is white; a series of stomach uleers have sapped his strength and emaciated his once powerful frame. But he is still fighting—fighting for the justice that he says was de- nied him 14 years ago. Hunter Girl to Direct N.I.P. A. at University Grand Forks, N. D., May 18— Bertha A. Turner, Hunter, will be di- rector for the Northern Interscholas- tic Press Association at the University of North Dakota next year, Prof. Franklin E. Bump, Jr., head of the Journalism department and general supervisor of the organization, an- nounced today. Miss Turner succeeds Viola Streimikes, Bantry, who ends her term this month. The new director will be in com- plete charge of the conference sched- uled for next November on the uni- versity campus when high -school publications from four states will compete for honors, Prof. Bump ex- Plained. In adition she will edit a monthly bulletin which is distributed to all high schools in the association. One assistant will be chosen imme- diately, according to plans outlined, and two more aides will be selected next fall to work with the director in completing plans for the conference. The new director is well fitted for her position, Prof. Bump points out. | She is news editor of the Dakota Stu- |dent, campus newspaper; member of Matrix, woman's honorary journalism group; assistant in the Dacotah sales campagin; and in addition has taken &@ prominent part in other branches of college activities. Her major course is journalism and she will be @ senior next ycar. TO COMPARE MAN AND GORILLA New York, May 18.—()—Adult go- rillas are to be killed in Africa, em- balmed, and brought to New York for anatomical study and detailed com- parison with man. The college of Physicians and surgeons of Columbia | university is sending an expedition |in cooperation with the American Museum of Natural History. nes NcoNemn net in eae eA ME | ouTouR way : By Williams | ©.1929 By NEA Seance bx: THIS HAS HAPPENED MILDRED LAWRENCE falls in love with STEPHEN ARMITAGE, who is lured away by PAMELA JUDSON when she tells him Mil- dred is trying to marry her brother for money. HAROLD fears HUCK CONNOR, who is blackmailing him over a forged check. Huck is infatuated with Pamela, and when she announces her engagement to Stephen, frames him for stealing an auto and causes his arrest. Pamela drops Stephen, but Mil- dred tries to get him out of jail. Harold had once told her he feared Huck, who had threatened to get rid of Stephen to keep him from marrying Pamela. Mildred determines to force Harold to help her, and is shocked to hear of his apparent suicide. She tells Ste- phen her suspicions but they have no proof. Finally she goes to MR. JUDSON, who takes her to head- quarters to tell her story. Judson bails Stephen out and Pamela begs forgiveness. After his release, Stephen nar- rowly escapes being shot by a thug. He reports to Mr. Judson and is horrified to learn that Mil- dred has been wounded by a gang- ster shot. His concern over her causes Judson to doubt his love for Pamela and he forbids his daughter to “buy her man.” She reminds him that his money had bought her two penniless step- mothers and pleads until the father gives in. Next day Pamela takes Stephen to call on Mildred RUTH DEWEY GROVES this consent if Armitage loved his {daughter ... IF HE LOVED HER! * ek * Mr. Judson looked at Mildred and recalled the thought that had once flashed through his mind about Ste- phen. The thought that he didn’t love either one of them, this grave- eyed girl or his own irresistible daughter. His heart ached for Mildred. There was nothing he could do for her— |nothing except to make certain that Stephen would not realize too late that he had made a mistake. Mr. Judson made up his mind to settle that point as soon as possible. He looked over Mildred’s head at her mother. “You'll let me know if there is anything I can do for you?” he asked and Mrs. Lawrence thanked him hurriedly. She was beginning to wish the Judsons, both father and daughter, would stay away. For half an hour after he was gone Mildred was too upset td cat or start downtown. Finally, when Mildred had bathed her face and powdered it afresh, tucked an extra handkerchief into her bag and put on her hat, the tele- phone rang. Mrs. Lawrence hurried to answer it. She instantly recognized Pamela's voice. Mildred heard her tell a direct falsehood. “Why mom,” she protested as her mother banged up the receiver, “how could you say I'm not here?” “It’s that Pamela Judson,” her mother explained, “and I'll not have them bothering you any more today!” apd tortures her by saying that they are to be married at once and sail for Africa. Connie tells them Mildred is to marry a TOMMY MITCHELL and Ste- phen believes her. Mcanwhile, Huck is not enjoy- ing his enforced seclusion. He quarrels with his gangsters. Onc of them tells him that the police are looking for him, and he plans to kidnap Pamela and leave town. se % NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XLVII While Huck waited for Gus to ob- tain the information he wanted in regard to Pamela's activities that morning, Mr. Judson went to see Mil- dred. It was a solicitous call, with a pur- Pose. He wanted to urge Mildred to return to his employ. She had re- covered sufficiently from her injury to be back at work, she had told him during a telephone conversation. He found her helping her mother to prepare lunch. She looked wan and tired. But there was an air of quiet steadiness about her as she smiled away her mother's protests against her help that impressed Mr. Judson anew with her fine courage. “I'm going back to the office this afternoon,” she told him, while she finished laying the table. Mr. Jud- son waited in the doorway though Mrs. Lawrence was offering him a chair the while she tried to persuade Mildred to “let the table go.” “My office, I hope,” he returned. Mildred flashed him a pleading glance. “Oh, please,” she said, and hastily put down a cup and saucer. Then she went over to him and placed a hand on his arm. “I appreciate your kindness,” she said earnestly, “but I'd rather leave things as they are.” “Mom! Mr. Judson has been most kind to me. Didn't you hear him say he'd leave his car for me and take a taxicab back to the hotel?” “Yes, I heard him, but considering you've done so many favors for his daughter, I guess that isn't any too much on his part.” Mildred laughed at her a little and kissed her gently. She found, when she reached her employer's office, that Mr. Judson had been there and explained enough to absolve her from blame in any way. She went immediately to work, but the thought that Pamela might have wanted to speak to her about some- thing important nagged at her mind until she decided to call her up. She glanced at her watch. It was after two. Pamela might be lunch- ing at the hotel. She got up to go to a pay telephone in a booth. There was another girl in the office at the time and Mildred thought Pamela might want to talk to her about some- thing private—something in connec- tion with the police, perhaps, though it was more likely just some trivial matter. Still, Mildred thought it best to be careful. ** | There was a slight wait and Pa- mela herself answered when her room. was called. She had come in late from a shopping tour and was waiting for her maid to come and help her dress for lunch. Mildred explained that she knew Pamela had telephoned her home and inquired what she wanted. Pamela was about to answer that cause she wanted to get one for Ste- phen when she heard a stealthy sound at her door. She thought it was her maid—who was being detained in the servants’ “Well, Mr. Judson returned and his eyes twinkled a bit, “if you're planning to be married soon perhaps it is best. But I'd like to meet the young man—Pamela told me his name is Thomas Mitchell.” Mildred glanced quickly at her mother, whose cheeks had become a nice pink. ea Then she turned back to Mr. Jud- son and he saw that she was embar- rassed. “Pamela suggested that I give you @ traveling case for a wedding pres- ent,” he went on, a trifle at a loss for an explanation of Mildred’s attitude. “But of course you know that it wouldn't be advisable for you to leave the country before. . . .” He paused, remembering Mrs. Lawrence's pres- ence, and added, “before Stephen's case is settled.” “Inspector Markeson has told. me that" Mildred agreed almost guilt- ly. “But you will tell me what you'd like to have most, won't you?” Mr. Judson went on. “I'd like to make gaged to anyone.” Thinking it over later, Mr. Judson realized that he hadn't been at all surprised. And before he left he knew that HE dining room by Gus—but through a crack in the screen behind which she sat at her telephone desk she saw & man enter her sitting room. The fleeting glimpse she caught of him failed to reveal his identity to her. She remembered that she had again forgotten to bolt her door—a habit she'd been trying to acquire since Harold's death. But she had locked it! This man had entered with a key. He could not be a hotel servant. These thoughts sped so quickly through Pamela's head that she for- got Mildred and quickly put the re- ceiver down, off the hook, and peered out from behind the screen. An instant later her voice shrilled a name that brought the intruder facing her with @ snarl. She saw that he held a gun and terror froze the shriek that rose in her throat. But his name had been heard. At the other end of the wire Mildred stood momentarily paralyzed. Then she began to call, “Pamela! Pamela!” An instant too late she realized that Huck might hear her too, and stopped. As Mildred’s voice came to the ter- rified girl at Huck’s mercy Pamela opened her mouth to shriek his name again, but Huck was too close to her now. He cli a hand over her th and held it there with brutal force. “Keep quiet,” he ordered. “If any- one interferes it’s the end—for both of us.” s* 8 Pamela stared up at him from hor- Tor-filled eyes. “Your only chance to live is to lis- ten and do as I say,” Huck went on and there was death itself in his voice. “You're going with me,” Huck told her in that same mon semi- whisper. “I'm going ‘to take my hand away now and if you scream you'll be dead the next second.” A tremor of nervous agony ran over Pamela's body as Huck removed his hand from her bruised lips and pressed the revolver deeper into her side. Huck, watching her like a hawk, saw that she was not going to make an outcry, but he did not lower the gun until he had told her what she had to do and she had bent her head to signify her understanding and as- sent. Then he reached for the tele- phone and banged yp the receiver. ‘The hat and ensemble coat she had worn that morning lay on a nearby chair. Huck grabbed them up and thrust them toward her. Under the coat he found her bag and gave her that, too. Over his own arm he carried his own top coat. It was unnecessary as @ garment but it served to hide the gun that Pamela had seen thrust in- to his pocket. “Take my arm,” Huck directed, rem Pamela obeyed like an automa- “If you can’t think of anything else say the Lord’s Prayer, and say it fast,” Huck said to her as he led her to- ward the door. “For it’s going to be unlucky for you if anyone discovers that you're not enjoying this little elopement.” As they passed the room clerk’s | Tru desk Huck nodded to the woman seated there and then bent his head to make some laughing remark to Pamela. 2 As they were carried swiftly to the street in an express elevator Mildred was rushing frantically to another telephone. (To Be Concluded) Special Edition of U Newspaper Printed Grand Forks, N. D., May 18—As a special feature of the annual High School Conference now going on at the University of North Dakota a 12- Page edition of the Dakota Student, campus newspaper was distributed this morning. Sigma Delta Chi, national profes- sional journalistic fraternity, is in charge of the issue. Cross-word Puzzle ACROSS 1 Wit 26. Measere of paper 8, Lightly bailt house Solution of Yesterday's Puzzie 10. Vi iy | : ST. GEORGE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH Holy Communion at 9:00 a. m. Morning prayer and sermon 10:30 a.m. Church school following morning service. Visitors very elcome. Archdeacon H. R. Harrington in TRINITY ENGLISH LUTHERAN Avenue C, at Seventh. Opie 8S. Rindahl, Pastor. Festival of Pentecost. Sunday School and Bible classes 9:30 a. m. and 12 noon. ~ Festival sermon 10:45 a. m. “Pentecost in Our Lives.” Evening service 7:30. “Luther’s Small Catechism.” FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH (Augustana Synod) Seventh Street and Avenue D. . toad A.J. cite Pastor. E n— school. Bibl class and classes for all grades. eo. grin n, bib ehd tatiana Pp. m.—Vesper services. choir will sing, and all tie aeemann are kindly requested to be present. ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH Synod) (Missouri Synx Fourth Street at Avenue A. J. V. Richert, Pastor. 10:30—Morni worship (German). Se M.—Bible hour, in charge 7:30—Evening service (English). FIRST CMURCH OF CHRIST, Corner Fourth street und Avenue © Wednesday orening: * cestimonial A rent, een is open in the Thureday and Seturdayexoue e holidays, from 2 to 4 p. m. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Fourth street and Avenue B O. S. Jacobson, pastor-at-large 10:00 a. m. Sunday school. Mrs. H. A. McNutt, superintendent. ja ne tn Te Se an a Men.” Special music. tiga oe p.m. Senior B. Y. P. U. serve 8:00 Evening _ service. Sub- ject, “What. : Does It Mean to Be Christian?” 3 8:00 p. m., Wednesday. . prayer PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Second and Thayer. mance 8. Wright, Pastor. lay morning service at 10: broadcast by KFYR. eid Organ prelude, Hymn V: i! (Poster)—Grace Duryee Pcs Quartet, “The Voice in the Wilder. ness” (J. Prindle Scott)—Mrs. Wright Mrs, Bavendick, Mr. Wright, Mr, atanemeeys hildren’s sermon—Paul S. W: on, “Unshaken Faith"— woo Paul 8, Organ postlude—“March of the Pil- grims” (Bede)—Grace Duryee Morris. Church school—9:30, all depart- ments above and including the inter- mediate; 12 noon, all departments pon anes tana ne ett The cs meets al auditorium. ee Christian endeavor at 7 p.m. worship at 8. Englehardt. Fg Seeker Sought”—Paul Organ postlude, “Carmen Sanctum” (Lawrence). we saree: service at 7:30 p.m, McCABE METHODIST feo EPISCOPAL Walter E. Vater, pastor 10:30 a.m. Morning owasrhip. Organ prelude, “Pipes of the Shep- herd David’—(Heyser), Miss Ruth Postlude, “Festival March”— = <oe